So on the way to work one day this week, I hear about a company that is posting a job for their IT Department that sounds too easy and too good to be true.

They are looking for an individual to surf the web on sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc to find all that background, nitty gritty, dirt on potential new employees. Search, seek, dig, and find answers to the questions that have not yet been asked.

I have heard many stories of folks being fired or let go due to online postings, but this is 180 degrees from that stuff. This will be the position that finds that information and sinks your party boat.

Online digging involves a fair bit of skill to find useful and relevant information. Potential new hires do it to target companies so the companies doing it makes some sense.

It is a minefield: Imagine sharing the name of a disreputable individual and how that could affect your career prospects. This risk is less likely for companies due to company registration rules which make companies in similar industries have different names.

The role you describe should be part of an HR function. It should only be used to raise questions just before interview. At interview the data can be discussed rather than being used to filter individuals. This is because the data may well be referring to another person, could be inaccurate, miss-leading or simply miss-interpreted.

Even if the data is accurate, is it relevant? Recruitment selection must be based on the persons ability to do the job: Anything else may be discrimination.

So, have I heard of companies doing this? Not until i saw your post. I had heard rumours of the practice being applied to both existing staff and recruits but no-one admitted it

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I don't this would be an easy position. I would find it challenging to make calls on what people posted as being just tacky or a problem. I would also feel bad about denying potentially good workers a job opportunity because they made some bad calls on social media sites.

Some stuff would be clear cut like posting job secrets and openly violating an NDA, but other stuff like complaining about an employer or partying too hard are on the edge for me.

Online digging involves a fair bit of skill to find useful and relevant information. Potential new hires do it to target companies so the companies doing it makes some sense.

It is a minefield: Imagine sharing the name of a disreputable individual and how that could affect your career prospects. This risk is less likely for companies due to company registration rules which make companies in similar industries have different names.

The role you describe should be part of an HR function. It should only be used to raise questions just before interview. At interview the data can be discussed rather than being used to filter individuals. This is because the data may well be referring to another person, could be inaccurate, miss-leading or simply miss-interpreted.

Even if the data is accurate, is it relevant? Recruitment selection must be based on the persons ability to do the job: Anything else may be discrimination.

So, have I heard of companies doing this? Not until i saw your post. I had heard rumours of the practice being applied to both existing staff and recruits but no-one admitted it

This is not an IT position at all. Classic case of "It has something to do with computers, therefore it is an IT function" that has driven me nuts for years.

I'm not concerned about the content I've written and put on the Internet myself. It's the stuff that other people put up about me (or possibly about me), and that I can't control, that I worry about. Using random crap off the Internet to judge a candidate's jobworthiness is on a par with checking graffiti at a bus stop for the same purpose. Would you hire, or not hire, someone based on something you read scribbled in magic marker on the wall of an airport bathroom?

So an interesting story from a few years ago. It turns out that Justin D. Davison from Western PA defaulted on his student loans and had lawyers and collection agencies trying to track him down. Being Justin R. Davison but directory listed in Western PA as just Justin Davison I got all kinds of fun calls, to the point I cancelled my phone.

One of the great challenges is making absolutely sure you have the right person.

We get collection calls for the guy who's house we bought when he went into foreclosure. They match us up based on street address and call our number which was never associated with that guy. Ya gotta love explaining to strangers accusing you of owing them money that you never even met the person they're looking for.

So on the way to work one day this week, I hear about a company that is posting a job for their IT Department that sounds too easy and too good to be true.

They are looking for an individual to surf the web on sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc to find all that background, nitty gritty, dirt on potential new employees. Search, seek, dig, and find answers to the questions that have not yet been asked.

I have heard many stories of folks being fired or let go due to online postings, but this is 180 degrees from that stuff. This will be the position that finds that information and sinks your party boat.

What have you heard? Any stories that one might share?

Let's hope it's not one of the companies PSX is interviewing with lol. Definitely not an IT position, other than the fact it uses a computer. It is an administrative or research position.

At a conference i went to in Feb, there was actually a breakout session on this topic exactly. Checking someone's social media and online presence in the hiring process and throughout their employment. All the hoopla, what not, and checks and balances that goes along with it led me to thank my stars that i don't have to do it.

I have been asked by HR to visit an employee's Facebook/Twit/MySpace page(s) to pull up their comments that disparage the company. I would see that a large company would use those sites for screening but a full time I.T. person to do it? Must have been burned in the past or something. I don't think that is something that I would want to do all the time.

I'd see this as a potential for contract employment. It seems like there's a market for a "social background check". You could charge a couple hundred per individual the company wants checked out. Unless it's a large corporation I don't see this as a full time gig, but as contract work I can easily see this becoming the new standard test for hiring employees.

Not only is there a position as described about background checking, there are actually people hired (who make a lot more than I do) to make status updates on FB, twitter, and whatnot on behalf of a company. I was reading about that last week. To get paid (nicely) to do nothing but post on FB and such.... what a life.

Not only is there a position as described about background checking, there are actually people hired (who make a lot more than I do) to make status updates on FB, twitter, and whatnot on behalf of a company. I was reading about that last week. To get paid (nicely) to do nothing but post on FB and such.... what a life.

Not only is there a position as described about background checking, there are actually people hired (who make a lot more than I do) to make status updates on FB, twitter, and whatnot on behalf of a company. I was reading about that last week. To get paid (nicely) to do nothing but post on FB and such.... what a life.

The Chartered Management Institute has done some research: Recruiters do look at online presence when considering a new hire because it is easy, cheap and provides less skewed views than peoples idealistc cv's. 35% of recruiters have discarded applications because of unprofessional conduct online so be very careful what your Facebook says about you.

I doubt this is the sole aspect of the role as would be a bit boring. But if you think it doesn't happen you must be naive.

Companies don't want people who look like they are drunk all the time and/or posting inappropriate content. Even if you are sure you would never do anything like that or waste time you have to be aware that having done so in the past will make it look like you will in future.